4. Even Jon Stewart of the Daily Show says, “Remember the Bush team? Little bit of discipline, little bit of repetition.

They sold us a WAR nobody wanted and nobody needed. … Salesmanship! Those guys could sell ice cubes to Eskimos. The Democrats, I don’t even think could sell Eskimos (BEEP) they need — insulation, heating apparatus. … Yes, we can! [pause] Unless you don’t think we should!”

As WaPo reports today, Democratic in-fighting over the White House's apparent shift away from the public option is a move that has riled progressives and threatened to derail the broader debate.

"I don't understand why the left of the left has decided that this is their Waterloo," sighed one senior White House adviser.

"It's a mystifying thing." The key to a deal remains some compromise with Republicans to get them to go along with a "reform" package and provide cover to Democrats that gained seats from Republicans in the last election.

The place to look where this may happen: The Senate Finance Committee. Key players: Baucus and Grassley. Baucus has to give Grassley something that Republicans Hatch, Kyl, Enzi, or Cornyn can agree to sign.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/32475446/print/1/displaymode/1098/

megimoo

08-20-2009, 04:40 PM

Floridians like the town-hall protests over President Barack Obama's healthcare plan and disapprove more of the plan and the president himself, according to a new poll.

By big margins, Floridians say the protests are not ``un-American'' and they're far more worried about rising taxes and deficits than with the need for a healthcare plan, the new Quinnipiac University poll of 1,136 registered voters shows.

Since he began pushing the health plan, Obama's job-approval ratings have flatlined. For the first time in Florida, slightly more people disapprove of Obama's job performance than support it. The split: 48 to 47 percent.

Though that's well within the poll's error margin, it's a significant shift since June, when 58 percent of Floridians favored Obama's job performance in a Quinnipiac poll. Out of the five states Quinnipiac regularly polls, Florida is the first state to pan Obama's job performance.

By a large 71-23 percent margin, the poll shows, Floridians don't believe Obama's promise that his health plan won't add to the deficit.

``People were willing to give President Obama the benefit of the doubt. No longer,'' said Peter A. Brown, director of the Connecticut-based university's polling institute.

``Now there's not only more skepticism about the president,'' Brown said, ``there's almost hostility.''

Voters believe Obama's health plan will hurt the economy, raise taxes, increase healthcare costs and hurt the quality of healthcare they receive. Republicans are strongly united against Obama and independents are turning away from him, the poll shows. Those earning more than $100,000 were more inclined than other wage earners to oppose the president and his policies.